The present invention relates to an optical disk drive (hereinafter appropriately referred to as simply a disk drive) for recording a data signal and/or reproducing a data signal recorded to an optical disk (hereinafter appropriately referred to as simply a disk) used as a data storage medium such as what is called a CD (Compact Disc) or what is called a DVD (Digital Video Disk or Digital Versatile Disk).
As the above-mentioned disk drive for recording a data signal and/or reproducing a data signal recorded to a disk used as a data storage medium, for example, a disk drive that has an opening on the front panel through which a disk tray opens and closes, and after the tray is opened and a disk is loaded onto the tray, the tray is automatically retracted into a predetermined position (a mounted position onto the turn table) in the disk drive is well known.
In such a type of disk drive, when a disk is loaded into this type of disk drive it is held between the turntable and a clamp and driven at a specific rotational speed so that data signals recorded to the disk can be read by the disk drive, that is recording or reproducing apparatus, during a read operation, for example. More specifically, signals are recorded to tracks within a specific area of the disk, and an optical pickup for signal reading is driven according to the track address of the desired signal so that the desired signal can be reproduced.
This type of disk drive has following three basic operations that require drive motor power: disk loading whereby the tray is driven in two directions between a disk loading/unloading position outside the disk drive at which a disk can be placed on or removed from the tray, and a loading/unloading position inside the disk drive at which the disk is loaded to or unloaded from the turntable; disk driving whereby the turntable is driven to spin a disk; and pickup driving whereby an optical pickup is driven primarily between positions at the outside circumference and inside circumference of the disk.
Conventionally, typical disk drives have also used, separate motors (that is, three individual motors) as the drive source for these three operations.
Concerning to this problem, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 3-49682 (hereinafter referred to as prior art 1), for example, a disk player (disk drive) is suggested, that reduces the number of required motors to two by driving a single loading motor in forward and reverse directions for disk loading and unloading, disk chucking, and pickup drive.
A constitution according to the prior art 1 typically comprises a case and a chassis substantially integrated with the case, a turntable and a drive motor thereof are fixed to the chassis. That is, because the vertical position of the turntable is fixed, the disk must be moved vertically for disk loading and unloading in order to avoid interference with the turntable. In addition, the damper side (chucking plate) must be driven vertically in order to clamp (settle) the disk to the turntable.
Therefore, in the disk drive according to the prior art 1, a disk holder for lifting the disk from the disk holding surface of the tray is provided, and rotating up or down the disk holder timed to the tray movement, thereby interference between the disk and turntable during disk loading and unloading is to be avoided. A chucking plate is further provided, that is supported by the fixed chassis through a chucking arm, so that the chucking plate can rotate and move vertically. And, the chucking plate is rotated up or down according to the disk loading and unloading timing to either clamp the disk to the turntable or to release the disk. Drive construction and operating the component parts are thus quite complicated and disadvantageous with respect to simplifying drive construction and achieving good stable operation.
Furthermore, all drive parts other than the tray and associated drive system are also provided on the fixed chassis in the disk drive according to the prior art 1. In addition, these parts are rigidly attached or supported on the fixed chassis. As a result, any impact, shock, or vibration to which the disk player is exposed is also transmitted directly from the fixed chassis to the various rigidly attached drive parts. These parts are thus easily susceptible to major damage. This design is therefore disadvantageous with respect to improving the durability of the disk drive to the effects of external forces, that is, resistance to shock and vibration.
Rigid attachment of these components to the fixed chassis also makes it necessary to extremely precisely position these components relative to each other. Extremely high precision is therefore required in both parts manufacture and assembly. When the need to mass-produce these components is considered, this need for extremely high precision is disadvantageous with respect to increasing productivity.
Considering these problems of the prior art, the applicant of this application has suggested, in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-23833 (hereinafter referred to as prior art 2), an optical disk drive having a basic constitution that has a drive base comprising a base frame of the disk drive, and a second base member (traverse base) separate from the drive base and supported to move or swing vertically relative to the first base, and has disposed thereto the turntable and a first motor for rotationally driving the turntable, and the optical pickup and pickup drive mechanism. This optical disk drive is able to reduce the number of motors used for drive operation, simplify the construction, improve the durability against shock and vibration, and improve the productivity.
According to this optical disk drive, the traverse base is supported by the drive base, through floating bushes at right and left two portion of one end side, and through a gear (cam gear) supported by a floating collar and a floating spring at the other end side, in a manner enabling the traverse base to float (in a floating state) within specific limits (that is, within the flexibility limits of the floating bush, the floating collar and the floating spring. It is to be noted that the above-mentioned two floating bushes also have a supporting function for supporting the traverse base to move or swing vertically relative to the drive base.
That is, the traverse base is not supported by a rigid construction (rigidly) on the drive base, but is instead supported so as to float on the drive base within limits determined by the flexibility of the damping members (the floating bush, the floating collar and the floating spring). As a result, strong shocks or vibrations to which the optical disk drive is exposed can be absorbed by the damping members, and thus prevented from being transferred directly from the drive base to drive parts on the traverse base. This means that the durability of the disk drive can be improved with respect to shock and vibration.
Furthermore, by supporting the second base so that it can float on the first base within the range of damping member flexibility, it is possible to adjust the relative positions of components on the first base and second base within the floating range of the second base. Compared with a conventional disk drive in which the components are supported by a rigid construction (rigidly), it is therefore possible to require less precision in parts manufacture and assembly, and productivity can therefore be improved in the manufacturing process.
In the meantime, as is generally known, there are various types in a configuration of a disk drive for recording a data signal to a disk as a data storage medium and/or for reproducing the data signal that is recorded in the disk.
For example, in the case of the above-described disk drives according to the prior arts 1, 2, not only a mechanism having a basic unction for reproducing and/or recording a data signal such as an optical pickup, a pickup drive mechanism and a rotation mechanism of a turntable or the like, but also a disk loading mechanism for moving a disk between a loading position above the turntable and an unloading position outside of the apparatus are incorporated in one integral unit and as a result, a disk drive is configured.
However, depending on a type of the disk drive, a mechanism other than the mechanism having the above-described basic function, for example, the above-described disk loading mechanism or the like may be remarkably made complicated.
For example, on a disk drive having so-called changer function, whereby a data signal is reproduced and/or recorded as sequentially counterchanging a plurality of disks, the above-described disk loading mechanism is also inevitably made complicated.
In such a case, it is very difficult to integrally incorporate a mechanism having a basic function for reproducing and/or recording a data signal and a disk loading mechanism so as to compose one disk drive as the above mentioned prior arts 1, 2.
Accordingly, in this case, a disk drive is configured by one unit including a mechanism having the above-described basic function, and aside from this, an external mechanism provided with the disk loading function is disposed, so that the both of them are used in a combination.
In this case, loading and unloading of the disk may be carried out by using motive energy of the external mechanism.
In addition, as other type of disk drive, so-called disk drive of a hop up system is known that an upper part of a turntable is covered with an openable and closable lid, and after opening this lid, the disk is set and ejected. In the case of such a disk drive of the hop up system, generally, the disk is set on and ejected from the turntable by hand, so that an automatic disk loading mechanism is not necessary. Accordingly, in this case, basically, only a unit provided with a mechanism having the above-described basic function of an optical disk drive is necessary.
In the case that various types of disk drive having different configurations as described above are required to be manufactured, conventionally, necessary mechanism parts are prepared for each type, respectively. Further, depending on the circumstances, these mechanism parts are partially unitized and these are assembled to compose a disk drive. However, a main configuration of each type of a disk drive is different, respectively, and has no character in common, so that the management of the parts and the management of the units are made very complicated and further, it is also difficult to increase productivity in an assembly process for assembling the disk drive.
Therefore, the present invention is made with the basic object of simplifying management of parts and management of units and increasing productivity in an assembly process for assembling an optical disk drive by standardizing a unit provided with a mechanism having a basic function for reproducing and/or recording a data signal such as an optical pickup, a pickup drive mechanism and a rotation mechanism of a turntable or the like upon manufacturing various types of optical disk drives having different configurations.
Therefore, an optical disk drive according to the invention set forth in claim 1 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a first invention) has a basic unit, which is configured as a result that a turntable for rotatably supporting an optical disk; a first motor for rotationally driving the turntable; an optical pickup for writing a data signal to an optical disk rotating on the turntable and/or reading a data signal recorded to the optical disk; a pickup drive mechanism for moving the optical pickup bidirectionally between the inside circumference side and outside circumference side of the optical disk; and a second motor capable of supplying drive power to the pickup drive mechanism are mounted on a part base; wherein the basic unit includes an attachment portion for detachably attaching a gear mechanism for engaging an additional part unit to the basic unit, and the additional part unit comprises a drive base for supporting the part base movably or swingably in a vertical direction; a disk loading mechanism for moving the optical disk bidirectionally between a first position above the turntable and a second position outside the disk drive; a loading drive mechanism for driving the disk loading mechanism by a drive power of the second motor; and a drive power transfer path switching mechanism for switching a drive power transfer path of the second motor between a path transferring power to the loading drive mechanism and a path transferring power to the pickup drive mechanism.
According to this constitution, the basic unit is configured as a result that the turntable, the first motor for rotationally driving the turntable, the optical pickup, the pickup drive mechanism, and the second motor capable of supplying drive power to the foregoing pickup drive mechanism are mounted on the part base. Further, this basic unit is provided with the attachment portion for detachably attaching the gear mechanism for engaging the additional part unit capable of detachably attaching to the basic unit, and the additional part unit may include the drive base, the disk loading mechanism, the loading drive mechanism, and the drive power transfer path switching mechanism. Accordingly, by attaching and detaching the above-described gear mechanism to this attachment portion, the optical disk drive can alternately select a usage condition from among a usage condition independently using the basic unit and a usage condition for building the basic unit and the additional part unit with each other. In the usage condition for building the basic unit and the additional part unit with each other, the above-described part base is supported movably or swingably in a vertical direction with regard to the drive base.
In addition, an optical disk drive according to the invention set forth in claim 2 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a second invention) has a basic unit, which is configured as a result that a turntable for rotatably supporting an optical disk; a first motor for rotationally driving the turntable; an optical pickup for writing a data signal to an optical disk rotating on the turntable and/or reading a data signal recorded to the optical disk; a pickup drive mechanism for moving the optical pickup bidirectionally between the inside circumference side and outside circumference side of the optical disk; and a second motor capable of supplying drive power to the pickup drive mechanism are mounted on a part base; and an additional part unit, which is configured detachably with regard to the basic unit, comprising a drive base for supporting the part base movably or swingably in a vertical direction; a disk loading mechanism for moving the optical disk bidirectionally between a first position above the turntable and a second position outside the disk drive; a loading drive mechanism for driving the disk loading mechanism by a drive power of the second motor; and a drive power transfer path switching mechanism for switching a drive power transfer path of the second motor between a path transferring power to the loading drive mechanism and a path transferring power to the pickup drive mechanism; wherein the optical disk drive can alternately select a usage condition from among a first usage condition independently using the basic unit and a second usage condition for building the basic unit and the additional part unit with each other.
According to this constitution, the basic unit configured as a result that the turntable, the first motor for rotationally driving the turntable, the optical pickup, the pickup drive mechanism, and the second motor capable of supplying drive power to the foregoing pickup drive mechanism are mounted on the part base; and the additional part unit, which is configured detachably with regard to the basic unit, having the drive base, the disk loading mechanism, the loading drive mechanism, and the drive power transfer path switching mechanism. Further, the optical disk drive can alternately select a usage condition from among a first usage condition independently using the basic unit and a second usage condition for building the basic unit and the additional part unit with each other. In the second usage condition, the above-described part base is supported movably or swingably in a vertical direction with regard to the drive base.
In addition, in the invention set forth in claim 3 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a third invention), according to the above-described first and second inventions, the second motor comprises a motor rotatable in forward and reverse directions; under the usage condition that the basic unit is solely used, the optical pickup is driven bidirectionally by rotating the second motor in a first rotation direction and in its reversed direction; and under the usage condition that the basic unit and the additional part unit are built with each other, by continuously rotating the second motor in a first rotation direction, the mobile operation of the optical pickup, the raising and lowering operation of the turntable, and the mobile operation of the optical disk are substantially continued in this order or by continuously rotating the second motor in a direction reversed to the first rotation direction, these respective operations are substantially continued in the reversed direction to the above and in the reversed order to the above.
According to this constitution, under the usage condition of solely using the above-described basic unit, by rotating one motor (the second motor) in forward direction (the first rotation direction) and its reverse directions, the optical pickup is moved bidirectionally. In addition, under the usage condition that the basic unit and the above-described additional part unit are built with each other, by rotating one motor (the second motor) in a forward direction (a first rotation direction) or its reversed direction continuously, the mobile operation of the optical pickup, the raising and lowering operation of the turntable, and the mobile operation of the disk are substantially continued in this order or they are substantially continued in the reversed direction and in the reversed order.
In addition, in the invention set forth in claim 4 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a fourth invention), according to any one of the above-described first to third inventions, the pickup drive mechanism comprises a feed rack for moving an optical pickup, and a rack drive gear set comprising a plurality of gears for driving the feed rack, the feed rack being movable to a specific position farther to the inside circumference side after moving the optical pickup to an inside circumference edge position of the data signal recording area of the optical disk, under the usage condition that the basic unit and the additional part unit are built with each other, engaging the drive power transfer path switching mechanism by moving the feed rack to this specific position at the inside circumference side and thereby switching second motor drive power transfer path from a path to the pickup drive mechanism to a path to the loading drive mechanism, and switching the second motor drive power transfer path from a path to the loading drive mechanism to a path to the pickup drive mechanism by moving from the specific position at the inside circumference side to the outside circumference side of the disk and thereby disengaging from the drive power transfer path switching mechanism.
According to this constitution, the feed rack is moved to a specific position farther to the inside circumference side after moving the optical pickup to an inside circumference edge position of the data signal recording area of the disk or the feed rack is moved from this specific position to the outside circumference side of the disk, and thereby, the drive power transfer path of the drive power of the second motor is switched.
In addition, in the invention set forth in claim 5 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a fifth invention), according to any one of the above-described first to fourth inventions, under the usage condition that the basic unit and the additional part unit are built with each other, the part base is disposed inside an opening in the drive base, and vertically swingably supported around one end thereof relative to the drive base; the drive base comprises thereon a cam gear disposed near an other end side of the part base, the cam gear having on an outside surface thereof a cam channel for raising and lowering the other end of the part base; and the loading drive mechanism comprises a loading drive gear set containing a plurality of gears including a final output gear; the final output gear of the loading drive gear set engaging an outside teeth part of the cam gear to rotate the cam gear and thereby raise or lower the other side of the part base.
According to this constitution, under the usage condition that the basic unit and the additional part unit are built with each other, the cam gear is rotated by the drive power transferred from the loading drive gear set, the other side of the part base is raised or lowered, and thereby the part is rotated around the one end thereof in a vertical direction with regard to a first base.
In addition, in the invention set forth in claim 6 of the present application in the invention set forth in the present claim 6 (hereinafter, referred to as a sixth invention), according to any one of the above-described first to fifth inventions, the part base is vertically swingably supported relative to the drive base through the intermediate base, which is located between the part base and the drive base.
According to this constitution, the intermediate base is swingably supported in the vertical direction with respect to the drive base, and the above-described part base is supported with respect to this intermediate base, so that it is possible to support the swing operation in the vertical direction with respect to the drive base and to support the part base separately.